Editorial October 14, 2002 ISSUE

War and a call to prayer

Editor

Spiritual thinkers—and do-ers—don't have to believe that they are helpless. Or that war is inevitable. Or that we are merely pawns in a global chess game in which we have no say in, no control over, the shaping of events. Prayer can make a difference in the mental atmosphere in the United States and in the rest of the world. Through prayer—active, engaged, felt prayer—we can contribute to lifting the mental atmosphere out of what The New York Times journalist Chris Hedges calls "the rush, the fever, and blood lust of war."

In his book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Hedges describes how nations can be "seduced" by war. Perhaps that phrase can serve as a reminder that, even if a country is already at war, its citizens, as individuals, have the right to resist acting out the baser human traits of hatred, selfishness, retribution, greed—the "blood lust" of war.

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